Calcium containing silicate oxyapatite laser materials

ABSTRACT

A COMPOSITION OF MATTER WHICH CAN BE USED AS A LASER CRYSTAL AND WHICH CAN BE DOPED WITH SENSITIZER IONS HAS THE EMPIRICAL CHEMICAL FORMULA CAM4-X(SIO4)3O:A2 WHERE A REPRESENTS A LASTING ION SELECTED FROM ND, BR, AND HO,X HAS A VALUE FROM .001 TO 1 AND M REPRESENTS AN ION SLECTED FROM LA, GD AND MIXTURES THEREOF.

July 25, 1972 HOPKINS ETAL 3,679,597

CALCIUM CCNTAINING SILICATE OXYAPAT ITE LASER MATERIALS Filed Sept. 22, 1969 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 rl N 'R I A' T NI V Dll D GROUND STATE SENSITIZER ACTIVATOR FIG. 1

INVENTORS RICHARD H. HOPKINS,

WTTNESSES KENNETH B. STEINBRUEGGE &

6, 61W WILLIAM 0. PARTLOW GEORGE w. ROLAND,

SW11 om I %MM Z ATTORNEY July 25, 972 R. H. HOPKINS L CALCIUM CCNTAINING SILICATE OXYAPATITE LASER MATERIALS s Sheets-Sheet -2 Filed Sept. 22. 1969 m U0 rm m SN 91 M 9N R0 9 3 m W FYC WAVELENGTH, MIICRONS FIG.

Excitation Spectrum CaLa 9 (SiO4)3O:Nd 1

0.7 WAVELENGTH, MICRONS mtzz m mtmm 2 22450 zo; :oxw mmE zo mm: m

FIG.

July 25, 1972 R. H. HOPKINS ETAL CALCIUM CCNTAINING SILICATE OXYAPATITE LASER MATERIALS Filed Sept. 22, 1969 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 w 0; mzomuzz Ipozm m Nd EINI'IEISVH Oi ElAllV'lI-IH 'NOISSIWSNVHl 'IVNOUOVEH I United States Patent 3,679,597 CALCIUM CONTAINING SILICATE OXYAPATITE LASER MATERIALS Richard H. Hopkins and George W. Roland, Monroeville, Kenneth B. Steinbruegge, Murrysville, and William D. Partlow, Blackridge, Pa., assignors to Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Pittsburgh, Pa.

Filed Sept. 22, 1969, Ser. No. 859,673 Int. Cl. C09k 1/54 U.S. Cl. 252-3014 F 10 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A composition of matter which can be used as a laser crystal and which can be doped with sensitizer ions has the empirical chemical formula CaM ,,(SiO O:A where A represents a lasing ion selected from Nd, Er, and Ho, x has a value from .001 to 1 and M represents an ion selected from La, Gd and mixtures thereof.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Energy transfer from one fluorescent specie to another or among fluorescent species of the same kind, is a fundamental process in luminescence. Before the advent of lasers, energy transfer was widely utilized in commercial phosphors such as those used in fluorescent lamps to improve their efiiciency, and was extensively studied in connection with organic phosphors.

With the advent of lasers, energy transfer processes have taken on additional importance as a means for improving the efiiciency of optically pumped lasers. The work on fluorescent lamps was concerned mainly with the transfer of energy between transition metal ions of different types. In contrast, investigations on laser materials have been principally concerned with energy transfer from transition metal ions to rare-earth ions, or energy transfer from rare-earth to rare-earth ions.

The basic aim of laser energy transfer can be described as follows: given an ion which has desirable spectroscopic properties (i.e., it emits in a desirable frequency region with a suitable bandwidth etc.), but which is only a weak or inetlicient absorber of the excitation energy, one must find another ion, which has desirable absorption properties, and which can transfer its energy efficiently and rapidly to the emitting ion. The emitting ion is called the activator or lasing ion and the absorbing ion is called the sensitizer. Energy transfer occurs from the sensitizer to the activator ion.

It has been demonstrated in U.S. Ser. No. 732,593, filed on May 28, 1968, and assigned to the assignee of this invention, that the mineral fluorapatite Ca (PO )F, is an excellent host for sensitizer and/or activator ions. Suitably doped fluorapatite exhibits high gain and low threshold characteristics. Large single crystals of this doped material are prepared by Czochralski growth from stoichiometric melts at temperatures of about 1650 C.

Our invention relates to a composition of matter suitable as a laser crystal in a resonant cavity of a laser generator. Our laser materials are based on silicate oxyapatite hosts doped with neodymium, erbium or holmium. Within the limits of our measurements, these maerials melt congruently. They melt at considerably higher temperatures (about 2000-2200 C.) than fluorapatite, and exhibit a higher material strength. Although the existence and synthesis of some silicate oxyapatite powders generally has been disclosed, as for example by Jun Ito in 53 American Mineralogist, 890; the growth, doping and laser application of large single crystals of our materials has not been previously considered.

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In addition to the crystalline laser materials of this invention, other related crystalline laser materials are described in U.S. patent applications Ser. Nos. 859,672, 859,754 and 859,753, all filed on Sept. 22, 1969, and assigned to the assignee of this invention.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is the prime object of this invention to provide a new and improved high strength composition of matter for use as a laser crystal in the resonant cavity of a laser generator.

This invention accomplishes the foregoing object by providing a silicate oxyapatite laser crystalline material having the empirical formula:

where M represents an ion selected from La, Gd and mixtures thereof. M is considered a host constituent. This is because it is not an activator and it plays no role as a sensitizer ion. M, a host constituent, is necessary to the construction of the host crystal lattice and is the prime constituent for which activator and sensitizer ions are substituted. A represents an activator ion (lasing ion) that is responsible for laser output. A, the activator ion, is selected from Nd, Er or Ho. Which ion is the lasing ion, A, in the crystal can be determined by measuring the frequency of the laser oscillations and from known spectroscopic data. Generally only one lasing ion will oscillate at a time. S represents a sensitizer ion which need not be present in the crystal. The sensitizer ion must be matched to the lasing ion. The value x can vary between .001-1 with a preferred range between .001-.3 and y can vary between 0 to (4x) with a preferred range between 0 to 1.

Our laser materials have low threshold characteristics and low gain allowing improved energy storage. They also have high material strength. Our materials provide a laser crystal capable of withstanding, without structural distortion, significantly higher pumping energies than fluorapatite. Little segregation is observed in doping with neodymium and erbium activators. This reduces serious crystal problems which exist in most hosts due to variation in dopant segregation along the crystal caused by temperature fluctuations during growth.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS For a better understanding of the nature and objects of the invention, reference may be made to the following drawings in which:

FIG. 1 shows energy levels of sensitizer and activator ions indicating transitions pertinent to energy transfer;

FIG. 2 shows a laser generator utilizing the laser crystal of this invention in association with a radiation source in a resonant laser cavity;

FIG. 3 shows the fluorescence spectrum of a single crystal of CaLa Nd (SiO O, unpolarized and taken along an axis perpendicular to the c axis of the crystal;

FIG. 4 shows the absorption spectrum of a single crystal of CaLa Nd (SiO O, taken along an axis perpendicular to the c axis of the crystal and through a thickness of 0.164 inch; and

FIG. 5 shows the excitation spectrum of the infrared fluorescence from a single crystal of CaLa Nd 0 DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The silicate oxyapatite host materials of this invention have the formula CaM (SiO O where M is an ion selected from La, Gd and mixtures thereof. These hosts contain ion sites which will accommodate both rare earth and transition metal ions. The crystal structure of 3 the host materials CaLa (SiO O and CaGd (SiO O, where La and Gd are host constituents, is hexagonal with unit cell formulas of Ca Ia (SiO O and a s s) s These host materials have an apatite structure (space group P6 m). The Si+ ions are in SiO; tetrahedra. Two sets of ions are present; one set is co-ordinated with Si in the SiO, tetrahedra and the other set occurs along the c axis (two ions per unit cell) with each ion co-ordinated by three cations (calcium or rare earth) in the plane of the horizontal mirror in P6 /m. Two

types of cation sites are present (Ca or Rare Earth;

and Ca or Rare Earth The activator ions and/or transition metal or rare earth sensitizer ions can substitute for La, Gd and Ca) in the host materials. This will be a substitution of some of the five Ca and rare earth (Gd and La) cations in the host CaM (SiO O.

The host materials of this invention use the rare earth ions Nd+ Eror Ho+ as their activator (lasing) ion. The ion concentration of these activators can vary in the host from about .02 to 20 atom percent of the five cations (one Ca and four M, host constituent, cations) in the host, CaM (SiO O. The preferred range of activator is from about .02 to 6 atom percent. Below the preferred range there is generally not enough optical absorption and above the preferred range there may be concentration quenching. Thus, x has a preferred value .between .001 and .3, i.e., (.O01=x)/5 cations equals .020 atom percent and (.3=x)/5 cations equals 6 atom percent. However with improved flash sources for special applications it is useful to have the value of x greater than 3. The sensitizer ion S has a preferred range for y from 0 to 1 i.e. the ion concentration of S preferably varies from about 0 to 20 atom percent (1=y/5) of the five cations in the host.

In accordance with this invention, sensitizer ions may be used to sensitize the rare earth activator ions Nd+ Er or H0+ in the host. Referring now to FIG. 1 which illustrates the various steps involved in non-radiative energy transfer: (1) the sensitizer ion absorbs a photon of external radiation of energy r, lifting it from the sensitizer ground state D to an excited state A; (2) the sensitizer subsequently decays to a lower metastable state N, by the emission of a photon r' or by a non-radiative process; (3) once lattice relaxation about the sensitizer metastable state has taken place, the sensitizer is either free to radiate a photon r" or to transfer its energy to an activator ion, as indicated by R; (4) if the electronic transitions in both the sensitizer and activator are electric dipole transitions, the dipole field of the excited sensitizer can introduce a dipole transition in a nearby activator, thereby raising the activator to an excited state A', with a simultaneous return of the sensitizer to its ground state; (5) this transition transfer a quantum of energy from the sensitizer to the activator. Once excited, the activator can decay to a lower metastable level N, through emission of photons, and can eventually decay to its ground state D' either directly or via an intermediate level D. Reference may be made to D. L. "Dexter, J. Chem. Phys., vol. 21, 1953, p. 836 for detailed descriptions of these energy transfer processes.

The requirements in non-radiative transfer for eflicient transfer of energy from sensitizer to activator are: (l) a reasonable overlap in energy between the sensitizer emission band and an absorption band of the activator; (2) high oscillator strengths to both sensitizer and activator; (3) a relatively high intrinsic radiative quantum efficiency for both the sensitizer and activator. In addtion to the above criteria, there are several other criteria of a more general nature for a useful sensitizer. These are: (l) the sensitizer should absorb radiation in a spectral region where the activator has little or no absorption; (2) the sensitizer should absorb in a region where the pump. lamp radiates appreciable energy, and

(3) the sensitizer should not absorb where the activator emits, or have any adverse effects on the radiative efiiciency of the activator. For efficient energy transfer to occur it is necessary that the rate of transfer (R in FIG. 1) be more rapid than the rate of decay of the sensitizer to its ground state (r" in FIG. 1).

The sensitizing ions that may be used in the composition of this invention would include transition metal and rare earth ions which are capable of (a) absorbing radiation energy otherwise not absorbed by the activator (lasing ion) and (b) transferring that absorbed energy to the activator.

Although a variety of transition metal ions and rare earth ions are suitable to sensitize the activator ions in the host laser crystal, best results are achieved when selected sensitizer ions are matched to activator ions in the particular host. The following table shows some suitable combinations:

In the preparation of the laser crystalline material of this invention 12.0000 grams of CaCO 76.1780 grams of La o 2.0174 grams of Ndgo3 and 21.6022 grams of silicic acid which had been prefired at 1300 C. for several hours to drive off water, were mixed together. All reactants were of luminescent grade (greater than 99.9% purity). The ingredients were then placed in an iridium crucible and melted at approximately 2200 C. as measured by an uncorrected optical pyrometer.

Crystalswere pulled from the melt at 2200 C. using the standard Czochralski technique, well known in the art and described in an article byv I. Czochralski in Zeitschrift fur Physikalische Chemie, vol. 92, pp. 219- 221 (1918). A recent description of the process is found in an article by H. Naussau and L. G. Van Uitert in Journal of Applied Physics, vol. 31, p. 1508 (1960).

The furnace wassurrounded by a quartz cylinder attached to the apparatus by means of a neoprene gasket and a brass flange. Insulation for theiridium crucible was provided by V2 inch thick zirconia quadrants stacked into a cylinder. Thermal distribution throughout the melt was controlled by adjusting the crucible in the field of the work coil and by changing spacing of the zirconia quadrants and the top plate. The power source was a Westinghouse 30 kva. motor-driven 10,000 cycle generator with a water cooled copper wonk coil. The pulling apparatus was designed such that pull rates between 1 and 40 mm./hr. and rotation speeds of 10-170 r.p.m. could be used. Temperature was controlled by using the output of a sapphire light pipe leading to a radiamatic detector which fed the output into an L and N Azar recorder-controller. The

voltage from the recorder-controller in association with an L and N current adjusting type relay supplies the input current of a Norbatrol linear power controller. The Norbatrol output voltage supplies the necessary field excitation required by the 10,000 cycle generator.

The seed was held on a water cooled shaft which was threaded to accommodate an iridium chuck. The crucible and chuck were protected from oxidation by an argon atmosphere. Oriented seeds were used for growth. These were obtained by starting with a polycrystalline seed obtained from a slow-cooled melt. Crystals were grown as large as /2 inch in diameter and 2 inches long. Cooliiig rates of the pulled crystals varied from two to six ours.

The crystalline materials grown and containing Nd, Er or Ho lasing ions are useful as laser crystal rods in simple lasers and in more complicated laser applications such as Q switched lasers, both of which are described in detail in chapters 3 and 4 and especially pp. 132-160 of The Laser by W. V. Smith and P. P. Sorokin, McGraw-Hill, 1966, herein incorporated by reference.

LA simple schematic illustration of a typical laser generator is shown in FIG. 2 of the drawings. Between reflectors 20 and 21 there is a resonant laser cavity containing the laser crystal 22, a radiation source means 23 such as a flash lamp which provides pump energy to the crystal, and possibly a Q switching means shown by dotted lines. Reflector 20 is partially reflecting to permit the escape of light beams of coherent radiation 24 whereas reflector 21 is highly reflective.

The basic principle involved in Q switching a laser is to allow a very high population inversion to be built up by making the laser cavity losses excessive, while the laser is being pumped, thereby preventing the laser from oscillating prematurely. When a strong inversion is attained, the conditions are suddenly made favorable for oscillation by rapidly making the cavity losses very small, so that a condition of large amplification is suddenly realized. The Q switch could, for example, contain a metalloorganic compound in solution such as a phthalocyanine which absorbs light from the crystal. The pumping energy input from the flash lamp increases until amplification in the laser crystal overcomes the loss due to absorption in the Q switch cell and the laser begins to emit coherent light weakly. A very small amount of this light bleaches the solution which then becomes almost perfectly transparent to the light. At that instant there is suddenly a giant pulse of light containing all the stored energy in the laser rod.

One of the crystals pulled at a rate of inch per hour from a melt at about 2200 C. showed laser action at a 1.06 micron wavelength. The crystal composition was CaLa Nd,1(SiO O. This grown boule was ground and polished. The finishing procedure on the rod end resulted in polished ends parallel to better than 6 arc seconds and plane to A wavelength of He light. It was in the form of a 0.164" x 0.130" x 0.41" rectangular rod. It was tested in a 2.7" diameter cylindrical reflecting cavity with flat reflectors.

The laser head used in all pulse tests was a cylindrical Pyrex reflecting cylinder 75 mm. in diameter and 76 mm. long having two reflecting Pyrex end plates with holes machined for the lamp and rod. Front surface evaporated aluminum coatings were used and overcoated with A/ quartz for protection. Resonator reflectivities were both 99.2%. A PEK Xel-3 xenon flashlamp was located diametrically opposite the laser rod with a center to center spacing between the lamp and rod of 0.6 inch. This flashlamp was a broad band emitter with a peak emission around 5800 -A. The laser rod was supported in a doublewall Pyrex cylinder filled with a water filter solution of Na-No to prevent UV from reaching the laser rod being tested. The flashlamp was powered by a charged 340 pf. capacitor which was discharged through a 150 uh. inductor in series with the lamp. The maximum energy into the flashlamp was held below 100 joules to insure long life. The RLC circuit described produced a flashlamp pulse duration of about 800 ,useconds.

Although the operating characteristics of lasers are determined by the properties of their active lasing ions, the actual results achieved in any given system is highly dependent on imperfections in the crystal. Microscopic imperfections invisible to the eye may make laser oscillations impractical. The presence of bubbles or inclusions may scatter the beam and increase threshold significantly.

Despite the small rod size of the CaLa Nd (SiO O crystal, its supposed poor optical quality and the fact that it was oriented with the C direction (expected to be a low gain direction) perpendicular to the resonators, room temperature laser action was obtained at the surprisingly low threshold of approximately joules. With larger, high-quality crystals, threshold values of 4 joules should be possible. i

Measurements of the laser threshold were accomplished by aligning the laser rod in the laser head in the usual way with external reflectors. A IP25 phototube was then placed in the path of the beam with a 1.06 micron interference filter between the laser and phototube to reduce the background signal. The phototube output was displayed on a Tektronix type 555 dual-beam oscilloscope with one trace serving as an expanded scale. Thresholds could be accurately determined since the onset of lasing action appears as characteristic spikes as seen with other materials such as ruby.

Spectroscopic data on the fluorescence and absorption of CaLa Nd (SiO O are shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. The fluorescence spectrum (FIG. 3), from the above crystal shows in the near infrared including the 1.06 micron emission corresponding to the Nd laser line. In

this line is about ten times broader than in neodymium doped calcium fluorophosphate (50 A. vs. 6.5 A.). Henceour new silicate oxyapatite host, doped with neodymium should have enhanced energy-storage capabilities making it very promising for Q-switching laser applications. The visible and near infrared absorption spectrum (FIG. 4) for a single crystal of CaLa -Nd (SiO O indicates the considerable overlap of absorption bands to be found in this laser material. This suggests a relatively high average absorption of pump radiation. The relative intensity of the 1.06 micron line in its two polarizations (I /1,) for this sample was 1.4 and the decay time was 194 microseconds for the Nd emission.

The excitation spectra (FIG. 5) of the-1.06 emission line show that the energy is transferred from the absorbing levels to the 4F3/2 state, the initial laser level.

The melting point of neodymium doped CaLa (SiO O is significantly higher than neodymium doped Ca (PO )F. We have measured the hardness of polycrystalline samples of these two materials and compared them in the following table:

1 200 g. load.

Thermal shock resistance of neodymium doped CaLa 30 is also high, a sample suddenly subjected to an oxyhydrogen flame evidenced no spalling to the melting point. All data indicate that CaLa (SiO O:Nd should be superior to doped calcium fluorophosphate in resisting structural distortion and failure at high pump levels.

Absorption spectra was measured on a Cary Model 14 commercial spectrometer. The excitation and fluorescence spectrometer system consisted of two grating monochromators for dispersing the exciting light and the fluorescence light, along with associated optics, detectors, lamps and electronics. The source used was an Osram Type XBO-900, a high pressure xenon are lamp which was operated from a DC supply having less than 1% ripple. Fluorescence measurements were made using a Jarrell-Ash monochromator. A 600 L/mm. grating blazed at 4000 A. allowed excitation spectra to be taken from 2500 to 10,000 A. The quantum detectors used RCA 7102 photomultipliers cooled to liquid N; temperature.

We claim:

1. A composition of matter comprising a silicate oxyapante host having the formula CaM (SiO O wherein M s a host constituent ion selected from the group consisting of La, Gd and mixtures thereof, said host containing an activator ion selected from the group consisting of Nd, Er, and H0 in the ion concentration range of .02 to 20 atom percent of the calcium and M host constituent cations in the host.

2. The composition of claim 1 wherein the host contains the activator ion Nd in the ion concentration range of .02 to 6 atom percent.

3. A silicate oxyapatite laser crystal having the empirical formula CaM (SiO 0:A S wherein M is an ion selected from the group consisting of La and Gd, A is the ion Er, S is the sensitizer ion Yb, .1: has a value between 0.001 and 1, and y has a value between 0 and (4-x).

4. The laser crystal of claim 3, wherein v has a value between 0 to 1 and x has a value between 0.001 and 0.30.

5. The laser crystal of claim 9 wherein y=0.

6. A silicate oxyapatite laser crystal having the empirical formula CaM (SiO O:A S wherein M is an ion selected from the group consisting of La and Gd, A is the ion Ho, S is a sensitizer ion selected from the group consisting of Cr, Tm, Br and Yb, .1: has a value between 0.001 and 1 and y has a value between 0 and (4x).

7. The laser crystal of claim 5, wherein y has a value between 0 to 1 and x has a value between 0.001 and 0.30.

8. The laser crystal of claim 7 wherein y: 0.

9. A silicate oxyapatite laser crystal having the empirical formula CaM (SiO O:A, S, where M is a host constituent ion selected from the group consisting of La and Gd, A is the ion Nd, S is the sensitizer ion Mn, wherein A is present in the ion concentration range of 0.02 to 20 atom percent of the calcium and M host constituent cations in the formula and S is present in the ion concentration range of 0 to 20 atom percent of the calcium and M host constituent cations in the formula.

10. The laser crystal of claim 9 wherein the ion concentration of 8:0.

References Cited Ito: Silicate Apatites and Oxyapatites, 53 American Mineralogist, pp. 894 and 895, June 1968.

ROBERT D. EDMONDS, Primary Examiner 

